


Wounded

by Dusklatte



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Golden Deer Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), These two just want to protect each other-
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:35:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27579236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dusklatte/pseuds/Dusklatte
Summary: Following a report that some stragglers from Those Who Slither in the Dark had survived the events of almost two years earlier were causing trouble in former Kingdom lands, Byleth and her husband, Claude, go to handle the situation.What they assumed would just be a simple battle develops into a much more precarious situation, when all they want to do is return home.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 17





	Wounded

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this for a few days now, after having a hectic few days at work, and between this and playing Fates and Awakening again, I've hardly done much else in my spare time;;
> 
> Anyway! I'll try to update this again as soon as I can, I'm actively working on the next part :)
> 
> There is a bit of fighting/violence in this chapter, but only very briefly at the beginning!

Byleth winced as she felt her back crash down against the ground, the uneven terrain causing her pain which reminded her of the time she was sent off the side of that cliff seven years earlier. She held her breath for a moment as she tried to adjust to the aches taking over her body, before exhaling loudly as she did her best to move into a position to get back onto her feet.

Just before she had the chance to move properly, she noticed a figure stood over her, weapon held high in the air, about to be brought down upon her.

In a fight-or-flight response, she gritted her teeth as she lifted her leg to kick her assailant in the gut. As soon as her foot made contact, she rolled across the ground as the attacker fell to where she had just been lay (doing her absolute best to ignore the intensifying pain as a result), pulled out her dagger from its sheath, and plunged it down into their back.

They struggled for a moment after she stabbed them, blood staining the blade and her hand, before growing still. She let out a shaky sigh of relief as she withdrew her weapon, before falling back onto the ground as a result of her pain.

In the distance, she could hear more fighting. It was growing closer, so she knew that she couldn’t remain where she was for long. She either needed to hide as she recovered, or be prepared to fight some more.

It took a lot of effort for her to pull herself back up to her feet, before trudging her way over to her weapon which had fallen from her grasp when she fell down to the ground. She took a deep breath after picking it up, before making her way towards the continuing battle. She would have taken time to heal, if not for the fact that her husband was battling against the other opponents on his lonesome.

A horrific feeling of fear and dread formed in Byleth’s mind as she eventually heard things turn silent. As much as it made the pain in her back grow worse, she began to run in the direction of where the battle was taking place.

Scars of the attack began to appear in the surroundings as she moved. Arrows lodged in trees, splintering wood as a result of a blade, footprints in the mud and grass. Traces of blood.

Then she encountered bodies. All of their enemies, which did bring her _some_ comfort, but she knew that she could not relax until she reunited with her loved one.

Eventually, she could take being unable to see him any longer, and cried out for him, in the hope that there would be a response. “Claude!” The silence which lingered made her feel sick, and tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes. “Claude, please!”

She took a few more steps forward, before leaning against a tree as she felt a familiar sadness and grief flood through her body. _She couldn’t have been the only survivor of the attack… She couldn’t! How would it look, returning home on her own and telling everyone that he was dead? Tell everyone in Almyra that their king had fallen as a result of one of Fódlan’s oldest enemies?_

Before she could sink to her knees to cry, she heard a noise nearby, like a twig snapping. She tensed up, and took hold of her sword just in case. Then a hand clasped over her mouth from behind her, a figure leaning into her ear.

“Shh… We don’t know if they’re all dead,” said a familiar voice from behind her, which brought forth the biggest sense of relief that she had ever felt in her life. “Whisper until we are away from here,” he muttered into her ear, his hand coming away from her mouth so that she could turn around to face him. She bit her lip as she looked at him – Claude had also not been spared from injuries during the fighting. “Are you okay? After we got separated I was worried that they would try to do something to you, because of you having powers of Fódlan’s goddess and all…” They began to quietly move away from the scene of their battle, taking their time as they did so to make sure that they didn’t alert any possible surviving enemies to their presence.

“I-I’m fine… I have some minor cuts and bruises… But I’m fine. What about you though…?” Byleth frowned as she looked at Claude, noticing that he was limping, and had a painful looking slash across his cheek.

He sighed, and raked his hand through his hair. “Knocked off my wyvern… I sent her to get backup afterwards, as she was in no state to go into combat with…” As he spoke, Byleth knew that falling would likely have been the cause of his limp.

“What about this injury?” She closed the distance between them, then brought her hand which wasn’t previously bloodied by battle up to his face. He hissed at the contact, before his eyes widened when she pulled her hand back, and saw traces of his blood across the tips of her fingers.

“I thought it was just a small scrape, honest.”

Pursing her lips together, Byleth looked at her husband, then sighed. “Well… At least neither of us received a fatal wound. I can heal some of our injuries, but not all of them… We may have to wait for your wyvern returns with help before we can actually return home though, I’m not having you make that limp worse by walking all the way to Derdriu…”

After about fifteen minutes of walking, the pair found themselves beside a small stream. That, they decided, was a good enough distance from where they had been fighting to take time to heal and set up a small camp whilst they waited for support to arrive.

Claude was instructed by his wife to sit down underneath a tree as she began to try to tend to their injuries. He could see the concern laced into her features as she brought her hand up to his face, and began to use magic to tend to the injury across his cheek. Then, she sighed.

“I’m afraid that you have a lovely looking scar on your face now, Claude… I was able to heal it, but it was a bit too deep to heal without scarring,” Byleth whispered when she pulled her hand away. He then reached up to touch his face, and pouted. “Fortunately, I think that you look good with a scar… It adds to your rugged handsomeness, my king.”

Byleth’s words made his face turn a deep red, as he had never heard her be so… _forward_ with her words in such a suggestive manner before.

Following on from them healing, Byleth (yet again) told Claude to stay where he was whilst she went about for firewood so that they could keep warm – it was approaching nightfall, and at present, nights in Fódlan were harsh as winter neared closer. He noticed when she returned with the wood that she kept holding her hand against her back, which concerned him.

Eventually, they were ready for the night. A fire had been lit for them to keep warm, and they had taken advantage of the stream and managed to catch some fish to cook and eat.

Claude broke the silence which they were in after eating as he reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “Seteth is going to be pretty mad at us when we’re safe, By…” He then sighed, and laughed quietly. “He did tell us that we should take people with us for support, after all. But still… It’s our responsibility. We’re Fódlan and Almyra’s royalty, we have to protect the people – not have the people protect us.”

Byleth nodded along slightly. “When we got that report, saying that some remnants of Those Who Slither in the Dark were causing trouble in former kingdom lands… I knew from then that it had to be my responsibility to handle,” she began, taking a deep breath and looking up at the darkening skies. “I thought we had finished them off completely with the destruction of Shambhala and the defeat of Nemesis. The main reason that they caused so much trouble in the first place is because of _me._ I should have made sure that they were all out of the picture then...”

“And that’s why it was my responsibility too. If you remember, we led together, and like hell I’m letting you take on the burden of fighting them alone. We’re in this together, no matter what,” Claude responded, running his thumb across her knuckles. “I love you.”

“I love you too…”

The couple remained as they were until their surroundings grew dark and stars began to emerge in the sky. Claude took this as an opportunity to try to sleep and hope that his leg felt better come the morning, and shut his eyes as he leaned back against the tree. Despite him wanting to sleep though, he couldn’t – being out in the wilderness whilst wounded was a bad situation to be in for if anything were to happen.

He opened his eye slightly when he heard Byleth begin to make a few quiet noises, almost as though she were in pain. She had shed off her coat, which allowed him to see some of the expanses of her back in the dim light from the campfire. His breath caught in the back of his throat when he saw the injuries covering her skin. There were many bruises, and he had been completely unaware of it because her coat covering them.

“You never told me that you hurt your back…” he whispered as he did his best to edge his way over to her. “How did that happen?”

Byleth’s eyes widened when she realised that Claude was there before she sighed. “Just before I went to look for you, I got pushed down onto the ground. It was all rocky and uneven…” She then leaned her head against his shoulder. “It's not too bad, it just... hurts when I try to lie down.”

Claude frowned at her words, before taking a deep breath, gently wrapping his arms around her waist, then pulling her onto his lap. He didn’t care for his injured leg, not if his wife was also hurt.

“By... You should have told me,” he whispered, wincing slightly as he tightened his grasp with one of his arms, then used his other hand to cup her cheek. “When we got married, our vows said that we would look after each other... I won’t let you ignore your own pain just to care for me.”

“One of us needs to keep an eye out for if any of those-!” Her eyes widened as he tried to stop her from speaking. “C-Claude, you know that-"

With a smirk on his face, Claude continued what he was doing – peppering her throat and jaw with small kisses. “I know – you have a particular weakness for me kissing you right here...”

“We're in the o-open!”

“And we’re alone. I think if any enemies had survived, they would have attacked us by now.”

“Your leg-"

“Doesn’t matter. It will heal.”

“Claude, please...” Byleth took a deep breath as she shook her head, and moved her hand up to his jaw to run her fingers across his growing beard. “When we get help, and when we are at home... Then we can do this, okay?” She then leaned in, and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I promise. Now, can you let me get off your lap? I don’t want to aggravate your injury...”

Claude frowned as he let go of Byleth, but grabbed hold of her hand before she could properly stand up. “At least sit beside me.”

She turned to him, and nodded with a tired smile. “Of course I will.”

Not too long later, Claude felt Byleth’s head fall down onto his shoulder. Her breathing was light, and it seemed that all of the tension left her body. He let out a small sigh, relieved that she was able to sleep. She had looked out for him since the fighting ended, now it was his turn to look out for her.

However, it hardly took long for his own head to fall against hers, tiredness from the day's events taking over his body too.

* * *

* * *

As dawn broke across the expanses of Fódlan, the early winter chill managed to rouse Byleth from her sleep. Though it was an uncomfortable night, she took comfort in the fact that Claude was holding onto her tightly – his warmth more than made up for the way in which the wind was whipping around them.

_Especially_ considering that her coat was still abandoned on the ground, not too far from the ashes of their campfire which appeared to have been snuffed out many an hour ago.

So as to not wake him up, Byleth extended her leg out to put her foot on her coat, and used it to pull it closer to them both. Once it was within reach, she grabbed hold of it (not caring for the dirt which coated it from her previous action, in addition to the battles of the day before) and pulled it over them both to shield from more of the cold.

With a small sigh, she then leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes once more. That, in turn, allowed her to focus on his heartbeat. It helped her feel safe, in spite of the difficult situation that they were in. Only his heart beat, and in her mind, it beat for both of them. A steady rhythm which kept them grounded and helped her feel alive.

Before she could fall asleep for just a little while longer though, there was the sound of heavy footsteps nearby. Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she shook at Claude's arm to wake him up.

It was instead the shaking of the ground which woke the Almyran king.

And a demonic beast staring straight at them from across the stream for them to realise that they were in an even trickier situation than the day before.


End file.
